So before any discussion into the horror genre, I do want to make a small disclaimer, or a gentle reminder. Horror is subjective. Horror is personal. While this website is focused on middle grade horror literature, it is still important to remember that you should never force yourself to explore a horror sub-genre that you find uncomfortable. Exploring horror is a great way to discover your boundaries and to find what spooky stories work for you but never at the expense of your mental health.

Beginning your journey into the horror genre can be overwhelming but it’s also fun! To start your journey, consider the various sub-genres within horror. This chart was originally posted on the now defunct website Horror on Screen and was updated by a Reddit user named Simple Film Reviews. While this chart focuses primarily on Adult horror movies instead of books, I still think it’s a great foundational piece to understand the various subgenres in horror fiction. Please remember that these are loose categories – you can easily blend sub-genres around to create something new and fun. Literature is always up for interpretation by its reader. Using the concept of this sub-genre chart is a great way to explore themes and to provide a means to find the right book for any new or veteran horror reader.

 Let’s now explore how we can use this chart to better understand sub-genres in juvenile horror fiction. Let’s take a  look at the five major sub-genres, Monster, Paranormal, Killer, Psychological, and Gore and Disturbing. 

What I have noticed in my observation of juvenile horror is that there is a progressional flow within the horror genre. Early Reader titles such as picture books, board books, beginning readers, beginning chapter books and Juvenile Fiction titles tend to primarily showcase the Monster and Paranormal sub-genres. When readers move towards Middle Grade and Young Adult titles, the sub-genre possibilities expand to include Killer and Psychological. Older Young Adult titles and Adult titles will then fully embrace all five sub-genres by including more gore and disturbing elements. Goreish elements might be present in Juvenile and Middle Grade titles but it’s not to the extent that you may see in Adult titles.

As I mentioned, monsters and paranormal are the start of a child’s journey in the horror genre. Picture books and board books present these horror elements as more playful and provide fun scenarios for children to understand the creatures or spooky situations.

Within the Monster sub-genre, you will see stories focused on aliens, kaiju creatures such as Godzilla, man-made creatures such as Frankenstein’s creation, natural creatures such as sharks, bears, and birds, supernatural creatures such as gremlins or evil trolls, vampires, werewolves, and zombies.

Next we move into the Paranormal sub-genre. Paranormal elements include devils and demons, ghosts and spirits, haunted houses, haunted towns, possessed objects, possession, supernatural powers, and witches.

The next progression in youth horror literature is the psychological and killer sub-genres. Middle grade titles may also include some of these elements but they still may be more muted instead of fully embracing many of these scarier elements. Young Adults titles also include monster and paranormal stories but you will see an expansion of titles that include the major sub-genres of psychological and killer.

Psychological categories include asylums, fanaticism, gaslighting, madness, paranoia, and phobia. The Killer category includes the Giallo (stylized Italian horror), home invasion, murder, slasher, survival, and thriller.

The final major sub-genre is horror is Gore & Disturbing. While Middle Grade and Young Adult titles may contain gore and/or be more descriptive in the horror, more gore and disturbing elements are found in the Adult horror titles than young adult. Gore and Disturbing elements include body horror, cannibal, extreme, splatter, and torture.

Don’t forget to mix horror with other genres. Here are some great horror genre blends that are entertaining and fun.